State Senate Prez: Impeach Larry Krasner!

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The president of the Pennsylvania state Senate today called on leaders in the state House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner by launching an investigation of the "reform" D.A. who just last November, got reelected by a landslide to a second term. 

In a letter to a trio of Republican  leaders in the state House,  state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, another Republican from Bellefonte, PA, said that in order to stem the tide of violence in Philadelphia, it was necessary to impeach Krasner and remove him from office.

What a great idea! It would take a simple majority vote of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to go forward with articles of impeachment against Krasner. The next step would be for the state Senate, also controlled by the GOP, to hold a trial of Krasner, where witnesses would be called to testify.

It would take a two-thirds vote in the state Senate to remove Krasner from office.

The last time the state Senate impeached an elected official was in 1994, when the late State Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen, who died in 2014, was removed from office and stripped of his pension. Prior to his impeachment, the Pittsburgh Democrat was removed from the bench because of a conviction for conspiring to order mood-altering drugs under the names of his employees, in order to hide a history of mental illness. 

In his letter today sent to House Speaker Bryan Cutler, Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff and Judiciary Committee Chair Rob Kauffman, state Senator Corman stated that since 2015, just 21 percent of shootings in Philadelphia have led to criminal charges. Of that small percentage, Corman said, less than one-tenth of those cases have resulted in a conviction.

“The recent spike in violent crime is a direct result of DA Krasner’s failed policies and his refusal to perform the duties of his office to hold criminals accountable for the crimes that they commit,” Corman said in the letter. 

“His [Krasner's] decision to allow more and more criminals to walk free through plea deals and dismissed charges has created an environment in which Philadelphians are no longer safe in their own homes and communities," Corman wrote.

In the four years that Krasner has served as D.A., the murder rate in Philadelphia has jumped from 315 in 2017, the year before Krasner took office, to an all-time record of 562 murders last year, a 78% increase.

In an appearance this afternoon on Dom Giordano's talk show, Corman, who's running for governor, said that, "Ultimately, it's their [the House of Representatives'] decision file articles of impeachment."

"I think this crisis has reached such a level that it deserves this response," Corman said. 

On Giordano's radio show, Corman cited the case of Samuel Collington, a 21-year-old Temple University student who was murdered by Latif Williams, a 17 year-old criminal that the D.A.'s office under Krasner had just let out of jail.

"That poor Temple student," Corman said. "I was a Temple student years ago."

Corman added that Collington was "killed by someone who should have been in jail; there's no other way to look at it . .  if not for the policies of this particular D.A. that student would be alive today."

On Aug. 14th, police arrested Williams and charged him with eight crimes in connection with another armed carjacking, including aggravated assault, robbery, conspiracy and possession of an unlicensed gun.

On Sept. 30th, at only the second listing for a preliminary hearing in the case, Judge Martin Coleman granted the D.A.'s motion to withdraw all eight charges against Williams, and he was a free man.

Less than two months later, on Sunday Nov. 28th, Williams attempted to carjack Collington, and when Collington fought back, Williams, according to police, fatally shot the Temple student twice in the chest.

On the radio show, Corman also cited former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who accused Krasner of having "a certain audacity of ignorance and white privilege" to famously deny at a Dec. 6th press conference that made him a national laughing stock that there was a crisis of violence in Philadelphia.

“We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence," Krasner famously insisted at a disaster of a press conference.

Asked whether tourists should be fearful of coming to Philadelphia at a time when the city had already set a new all-time record for homicides, Krasner said, “No, they should not."

That set off the former mayor. 

"I have to wonder what kind of messed-up world of white wokeness Krasner is living in," Nutter  wrote, "to have so little regard for human lives lost, many of them black and brown, while he advances his own national profile as a progressive district attorney.”

On the radio show, Corman criticized Krasner's soft-on-crime policies as harmful to business owners. After Krasner took office, he announced that he would only prosecute retail theft if the stolen goods amounted to more than $500.

For shoplifters, that's quite an invitation to a free shopping spree. No wonder criminals refer to the D.A. as "Uncle Larry," because he's their best friend.

In a press release, Corman noted that members of the General Assembly have been impacted by the recent crime wave in Philadelphia. Last year, state Senator Sharif Street’s cousin was murdered. On top of that, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon was carjacked at gunpoint in December.

“As elected officials of this Commonwealth, we cannot turn a blind eye to DA Krasner’s clear dereliction of duty,” Corman said. “Meaningful action must be taken to restore a sense of security to the communities and families that have been negatively impacted by his negligence.”

In the state House, Republicans hold a 113 to 89 majority over House Democrats, with one vacancy. In the state Senate, Republicans hold a 28 to 20 majority over Democrats, with one independent and one vacancy.

That "poor Temple student" Korman referred to wasn't the only fatal victim of Krasner's policies. Here's a short list of the most brutal criminals that Krasner is responsible for turning loose, with deadly consequences:

-- Hassan Elliott, an armed and dangerous gang member and convicted drug dealer, who walked out of prison a free man after the D.A. gave him a sweetheart sentence on a gun pinch, and then  the D.A. looked the other way on three alleged parole violations for Elliott. Elliott proceeded to shoot and kill Corporal James O'Connor, who was trying to serve him with an arrest warrant for murder. 

-- Razique Bumpas, whom, after the D.A.'s office failed to approve two arrest warrants for, shot and killed Ishan Charmidah Rahman, a 39 year-old pregnant woman; her unborn baby also died.

-- Josephus Davis, a two-time convicted robber who was arrested again for an alleged carjacking and an aggravated assault, has his bail lowered in the two new cases from a total of $300,000 all the way down to $32,000, so his family had to plunk down only $3,200 to spring him out of jail. According to police, Davis proceeded to hold up, shoot and kill Millan Loncar, a recent Temple grad who was out walking his dog. 

-- Taray Herring, a convicted sex offender with a dozen arrests on his rap sheet whom Krasner let out of jail because the D.A. was afraid he'd catch Covid, allegedly killed, hacked up and dismembered the body of Peter Gerold, 70, a licensed masseuse.

-- Tyree Miles, whom the D.A. dismissed a total of a dozen charges against on three different occasions, after he was accused of first attacking his girlfriend, then the cops, and finally his mother, brother and other relatives. Miles was finally charged with involuntary manslaughter, after his 10 year-old niece shot herself to death with her uncle's gun, a weapon that Miles had illegally and carelessly stored at her house. 

-- Michael Banks, whom the D.A.'s office plea-bargained a felony gun charge against down to a misdemeanor, got involved in a neighborhood shoot out, and shot and killed Zamar Jones, a 7-year-old boy who was sitting out on his front porch, playing with his toy race car and scooter.

-- Adriano Coriano, whom the D.A.'s office had an arrest warrant for, for allegedly violating a protection order by repeatedly stalking, harassing and assaulting his ex-wife. While the D.A.'s office sat on that arrest warrant for six straight days, Coriano shot and killed his ex-wife, Gladys Coriano.